As far as the hype argument goes... who really think Brawl would have sold like it did without uber hype... Same with Halo 3, If microsoft would have been like oh yea.... Halo 3 is coming out in THREE months there would have been no time for the hype to permeate though the gaming hemisphere.
Also hyping games sells systems in advance. I am sure many of your purchases of a Wii were influenced by a game name Brawl.
I think not announcing a game more than 1 year ahead is good, but It take at least 9 months for the hype to fully build...
Really when it comes down to it, I am cool with Zelda being the big 09 title, I am going to be very busy this fall anyways, but I want to see it. I want to hype myself up for it. But I will not do that until I see it. (has flashback of when I hype myself for Zelda after spaceworld 2000... then the near suicide (not really) when I saw toon link)
End of 2009 Predictions (Set, January 1st 2009)
Wii- 72 million 3rd Year Peak, better slate of releases
360- 37 million Should trend down slightly after 3rd year peak
PS3- 29 million Sales should pick up next year, 3rd year peak and price cut
